The American Dream by Mike Palecek Search Amazon for other books by or about Mike Palecek. Rating: Reviewed by: Marie Jones

If you want to read a chilling account of what the very near future, and I mean very near, might be like, pick up author Mike Palecek's The American Dream, a truly scary look at a society crippled by fascism and hopelessness.

From the get-go, Palecek's style jars the reader, with a mix of first and third person, and the reality of this new world order in which he places his hapless, and hopeless, characters becomes clear with dialog and narrative that points to a politically volatile situation that many readers will see warning signs of today.

The lead character, Michael M, literally walks a landscape that is both recognizable, yet futuristic and foreboding, with signposts along the way referring to situations such as 9/11, the stolen 2000 election and other real-life historical events. What Palecek does is take them to their next logical step, offering a conclusion based upon those steps that will frighten and disturb, even as it entertains. Yes, there is wit and humor here, even in this creepy tale of small-town American ideals gone haywire. But the mood that most prevails, thanks to tight writing and brevity, is satire, but a satire that is so compellingly "now" the reader cannot help but look over his or her shoulder, certain that some specter of the fascist Homeland, dressed in military fatigues, armed to the teeth, is leaning over watching...and waiting.

Palecek is fearless, skewering religious extremism, political right wing fundamentalism, gung-ho patriotism and the use of fear to play upon the innocent...and ignorant. And it works. I finished the book in one night...but it's been in my brain ever since, like a song that won't go away...haunting.